The Truth About NeatDesk Scanner

When I see injustice in this world, I must combat it, and won’t rest until I crush it. 🙂 A few months ago, I posted a video addressing false criticisms of the NeatDesk Document Scanner. Neat-haters surfaced, suggesting that I must work for the Neat Company, to give this machine a positive review! They continued to assert “facts” about NeatDesk that are entirely untrue. I made this video about backing up and exporting files from NeatDesk, to set the record straight, once and for all.

I’ve wanted one of these receipt scanners for a long time, but due to the negative reviews I had come across online, I resisted buying one. I don’t have a lot of money to blow on useless products, and I pride myself on really doing my homework before making a purchase. Reviews varied wildly, but people I knew who owned one, simply loved their NeatDesk. I finally purchased one, when faced with an irresistible offer on HSN.

After a few bumps installing the software, I got my Neat Scanner up and running, and was tremendously impressed with the speed, image quality and power of the software. The discrepancy between what I had read online, and my actual experience with the NeatDesk Scanner drove me to make a “first impression” video. Response to that video has been mostly positive, but the video seems to have angered people hell-bent on hating Neat products.

Some dissenters have owned a Neat machine, but most critical comments came from people who had never even used one. They speak up in the youTube comments to tell me what they “read somewhere” or “heard” about NeatDesk. It’s crazy. No matter how hard I try to explain that the information is either not correct, or maybe no longer correct … (I don’t know about past versions of NeatDesk, because I just began using Neat in November 2014) .. they continue to insist that misinformation is true! They are so determined to prove me wrong; it’s almost comical.

Something about this debate, has grabbed my attention and I just feel the need to set the record straight. Believe me, if I hated this scanner, I would say so. The thing that drives me crazy, is that most of the people bad mouthing the NeatDesk, have never so much as tried one. In fact, I suspect they have never even viewed one, because the most common criticism is the claim that NeatDesk cannot save as a PDF document … an absurd accusation, because the machine has only 2 buttons, one of which is clearly labeled PDF. It’s impossible to miss, if one only LOOKS at the actual machine!

There are things about NeatDesk that could be improved, such as adding a “Save” or “Done” button, in the review screen. As far as I can tell, changes are saved simply by navigating back or next, which I find disconcerting. I feel the need to click something, to ensure that I’ve saved my work, before navigating away from a page. Leaving the page without saving just feels unnatural.

One particularly misleading reviewer, make the accusation that Neat does not auto-crop or straighten out receipt scans. In reality, the un-cropped images he shows to prove his point, are a result of his own failure to use Neat’s “Auto” setting! He goes on for minutes complaining about the amount of printer ink that will be consumed by this “failure” of the Neat software. He fails to mention that (even though the mistake was his own) the black space can easily be cropped out manually, with Neat’s built-in crop tool.

Speaking of built-in tools, another improvement I would like to see is a more refined Rotate tool. It seems like the current tool only allows the user to rotate 45 degrees at a time, and has no un-dobutton. If I rotate an image, and don’t like the result, I have rotate three more times, to get back to the original orientation. It feels silly to to “rotate, rotate, rotate,” just to go back one step!

My goodness, I sure do have a lot to say about the NeatDesk scanner! I’m not even close to done with my thoughts (positive and negative) on this life-changing machine. I suppose another video is in order…. stay tuned!

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9 Comments →The Truth About NeatDesk Scanner

Hey Mimi, I viewed your post on Pinterest on calligraphy and your great idea to just print out your own practice pages. I was introduced to the art of calligraphy by my pharmacy school professor, Dr. Marc Jordin, who convinced me to invest in an Osmoroid gold tipped fountain/cartridge set with 6 nibs. This was back in 1979 and at that time Margaret Sheppard he published two practice books. One with alphabet styles (fonts) and the other using calligraphy creatively. All that to say, your short video on Pintrest (which I snatched up to my calligraphy post) IMPRESSED ME AS MUCH AS what I learned some 36 years ago. Back then I traced over the letters (very hard), but using your idea to decrease the transparency was TERRIFIC, hand what I plan on using from now on. I am no where near as talented as you but intend to follow your work. God has given you a gift as an artist! Thanks again for sharing. My best, mike

Hi Mike,
Thank you so much for your nice comment! I really have very little artistic talent, which should be encouraging to others out there, I hope! Lots of practice goes a long way, if you were not born with a knack for this stuff. I just realized there are many videos I’ve posted to youTube that I’ve forgotten to add to the blog, many of them about my favorite markers and tools for Hand Lettering projects. I will get those posted right away, so people don’t just think this is a tech-gadgets blog! Thank you for taking the time to comment and for your kind words!
Mimi

Hi Mimi,
I recently purchased the neat to do my taxes on and sync with quickbooks. I recently was looking online in how to sync with quickbooks and found reviews saying that it doesn’t sync properly. They said the numbers don’t show up properly in quickbooks. For example and expence wouldn’t show up as a negative. Just was wondering if you can clear this up. I am about to finish my taxes but am scared to sync. Thank you

Hi Dave, I wish I could help you with this, but I don’t export to any other program. I don’t use Quickbooks, so all I know about it is just what you see in the video here: where to find the export feature. Could you just make a backup of your Quickbooks and if you don’t like the result of the Neat data import, just undo or restore your Qdata to the previous save? (I’m just guessing here). I will say that I wouldn’t believe every negative thing I hear in reviews, there is a whole LOT of incorrect criticism. Even the reference to “Syncing” Quickbooks with Neat doesn’t sound right to me. As I understand it, they don’t really sync to eachother, you are just importing Neat Data into Quicken or Quickbooks, and then I imagine you would go into those imported transactions and modify the entries to match up with your Quicken categories etc. Does that help at all? Sorry, if not, I’m just really guessing here. I suggest you checkout Neat.com website too. I know they have been adding a bunch of “Neat University” tutorials that seem to cut right to the point better than their previous video (that I felt were too much like a commercial, and less like a help video).
Mimi

hi mimi, i saw your you tube video on the Neat scanner and was wondering if you have another video or link or input on a question that you have probably answered already. I want to back up my neat contents to google drive if possible similiar to how neat cloud does( but much less expensive) i am not a geek in any way so the simplest explanations would be appreciated

Thank you for the information that you have shared with the NEAT Organizer – very helpful. When I scan my documents, I need them to be high quality for my clients. I haven’t really been able to get a perfect scan without seeing the black “filler”boarders because the pages weren’t aligned perfectly as it fed through the scanner.

Hi, I reviewed your video amongst others and I should have thoroughly checked the web site. I did not know the software was subscription, for home use why would I want to pay every year, this is an old world model. Software should be free. Needless to say I’m packing it up and sending it back. Gonna find a device that does not charge for service.

Hi Mimi
i too loved (past) my Neat ADF 070108 which still works perfectly on my old computer.
but … purchased new computer using Windows 10. Unfortunately the driver is not
compatible even though the Neat software works for import and export etc but
the scan but is “grayed out” and can not scan in and have to use my HP printer/scanner(urghhh..)
have you or anyone else heard this problem? if you love Neat keep your Windows 7.

hello Mimi, I really need a tutorial on Neat. I have never used one. New on the job and owner wants all docs scanned. Somehow it was scanning to Quickbooks but previous guy left with out
leaving passwords. Quickbooks was ordered online in that persons name.
Not sure of all details. BUT I do know instructions are needed . Can it be scanned to excel worksheet and protected ? Would like to start with January 2017 receipts.